


His Heart Had Been So Touched

by StarthornFromScratch



Series: RomeChu Rapunzel (AU) [1]
Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Alternate Universe - Historical, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Rapunzel Fusion, Don't Have to Know Canon, Don’t need to know cannon, Human Names, M/M, Rapunzel Elements, cannon what, cheesy writing style, my boys are finally in one of my fics, romechu, stretched replica
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-02
Updated: 2020-09-02
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:55:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,211
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26239699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarthornFromScratch/pseuds/StarthornFromScratch
Summary: Yao was taken by a sorceress the day he was born.Romulus is the prince of the kingdom.They are not supposed to see one another, but does that matter?
Relationships: China/Rome (Hetalia)
Series: RomeChu Rapunzel (AU) [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1906003
Comments: 4
Kudos: 16





	His Heart Had Been So Touched

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to write a RomeChu fic so I wrote this! (It's more of a play-on-words of the story but...)
> 
> This story is a Rapunzel fanfic (a oneshot because I'm lazy) based on the original story! (I actually made it based off of the edited version from 1857, translated by D. L. Ashliman. You can read the two versions here: https://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm012a.html)
> 
> I will (as soon as I finish my Pokespe fic) start a longer one that's based on the movie and the story, untill then this is the best I can do!

A long long time ago, in a cottage on the edge of the city, there once lived a couple.

They had wished for children for a long time, for their entire marriage in fact, maybe even before that. Yet for some reason it had not happened yet. The wife had even started to feel as if it would not be possible, perhaps it was just not meant to happen.

But they were still persistent and, one day, it seemed their wish had been granted. They rejoiced, seeing as they were not cursed, that would be able to have a child. At first, it went well, no problems at all. They were happy and lived peacefully for a while, even the wife who was constantly on her feet and cooking even though she was pregnant.

Yet this peace could only go on for so long.

The wife fell ill, and one morning when her husband went upstairs to see if she had awoken she struggled to sit up, dilated pupils burning the edges of her brown irises.

"Dear husband," she rasped to him, "is there anything that would-" but she was cut off by her own coughs. As her husband rushed to her side (though hesitant to take her hand for fear of catching the dreadful disease) she laid back in the bed once more, rolling her head to look out the window in an attempt to ease her shortness of breath. Her eyes closed briefly, and for a moment the husband worried that she was starting to pass.

Luckily, when he called her name her eyes re-opened, staring blankly at the house she saw beside their own. His eyes followed her's, landing on the garden in the terrace that sat in the tower nearby. His face paled when she turned back to him, an imploring look in her eyes. No words need to be spoken for he knew what she would ask.

Grasping her hands with a certain necessity he looked into her sick face, "My love," he started, "I can not go there, please have some sense!"

The reason why he panicked so was that the tower so near to their house belonged to an old sorceress. Everyone, including the king, was terrified of her. She was powerful with spells and potions and curses of all sorts and he knew that facing her could mean death for both him and his wife. But however stubborn he was and how adamantly he believed he would be killed his wife was more so that she needed the plants- the 'rapunzel' as it was called.

He tried his hardest to stop her requests, pleading with her to have sense. But she would not listen. Holding up a frail hand in front of his face, she stared into his eyes, "If I do not have that rapunzel I shall die, I can not live without having some."

The husband's heart beat harder in his chest. He knew this was true, what she said had to be, she alone knew what was wrong and how she felt. "I love you dearly," he said, leaning down and resting his forehead against her shoulder, "and I shall get the rapunzel if what ails you calls for that only."

So she kissed his head, calming his fears greatly in the small motion. "I knew I could count on you," she whispered and his heart calmed itself.

And every night, for a few weeks, he snuck up into the sorceress' garden. It was uneventful, and his fears were mostly gone by the first week. Most importantly as he brought the rapunzel back for his wife she seemed to be gradually getting better. Her face looked less gaunt, her hands less pale, her arms less thin. So he kept going, each time bringing back a few more flowers from the plant, the sorceress hadn't even seemed to notice him.

But, as luck would have it, this time of peace could only last so long.

One night, when he was so close to leaving, the sorceress flung open the doors to the garden, triumphantly exclaiming her success. His blood ran cold, for this was what he had been fearing. The woman who stood across from him stalked quickly to his side, her bat-like sleeves trailing behind her in the cold night air, "Have you no shame?"

Her voice was low and threatening, one hand on either side of him and curled around the railing, trapping him in place. Yet when he tried to speak she interrupted him, hand flying up to land a blow to his cheek. She threw her body back, heels clicking angrily against the bricks, "you have climbed into my garden like a thief and stolen my rapunzel! Do you have any words to explain this crime?"

His voice shook, choking on his own words, "Please have mercy!" He begged, throwing himself to her feet, "I came here out of necessity, my wife needed the rapunzel to heal what has been ailing her, for she has been sick for so long due to the baby-"

As soon as he said this he knew he should not have. The sorceress' eyes narrowed, and he readied himself to watch his wife and unborn child die. But she surprised him, a cruel smile curling on her lips instead, "I will show you mercy if things are as you say, but only then. If you promise to give me the child when he is born you may have all the rapunzel you want,"

Nodding, and completely out of fear, the husband agreed to everything she said and rushed back down the vines and into his own house.

His wife was heartbroken when she heard the news but they moved forward. And finally when the child was born, as promised, the sorceress appeared and took the child, naming him Yao before disappearing once more. It was exactly as she said.

Fifteen years later, Yao was well versed in beauty. That is to say, he wasn’t perfect (though the sorceress teased him about thinking so anyway).

When he was twelve the sorceress had locked him away in a tower by the edge of the forest. This tower only had one window that saw the outside world. He hadn’t seen anyone other that the women who locked him away in the same amount of time he was in the tower.

For the first twelve years of his life, you see, it had been possible to interact with other people. Hard, but possible.

Whenever the sorceress wanted to enter the tower she would call up to him, asking for him to let down his hair. And so he would, since there was no other choice to be had.

So down his hair would go, meters upon meters of thick, black and brown hair. Satisfied with this, the sorceress would wrap her hands in his hair, knotting the strands around her fingers before climbing up the wall, using it as a sort of rope.

On the other side of this exchange, Yao would wind his hair around a hook that hung in the window, and then hold the hair behind that to strengthen the already thick cord.

A year later the king’s son happened to be passing through the area. He was riding his horse, looking for game that he could hunt when the sound of a strange string instrument met his ears. He had never heard such a tune, or such a sound at all. The instrument was new to him entirely.

So he paused, calling his horse to a standstill before turning them both and coming closer to the tower. Here, at the base of the tower, he heard the sound again.

Having found the source he dismounted and searched for a door. But none could not be found.

Casting one glance to the window he saw above, the prince turned once more and headed away, bewildered.

He rode home, but the sound had touched his heart. And so, day after day, week after week, he came back to that spot to listen the the music. It was a string instrument, that was certain, but it had something specially about it.

It was a ringing sensation in his heart.

So there he sat, day after day, night after night. Until, perhaps by chance, perhaps by fate, he found himself in the midst of another presence.

And there was the sorceress he had been taught to fear, a sort of aura coming off of her. Though as he hastened to hide he found that she was not after him but instead interested in entering the tower.

He watched in awe as she taped her foot, calling up to the person inside the tower.

”Yao!” She so called, “let down your hair!”

And so the hair came, though the prince thought he heard a faint expression of pain when the sorceress started to climb it.

When the cloaked woman pulled her body through the window the prince caught a glimpse of the person inside. It was a far way to the tower’s window from his position in the ferns, so no details could be described.

‘ _If that is the ladder to enter the tower I shall try my luck,’_ he so thought as he snuck away. 

And so the very next day, just as he had promised himself, the prince made his way to the castle. The sorceress was in her own home in the town, as night was beginning to fall.

”Yao!” the prince called out, almost letting his words stumble as he remembered how they were to be phrased, “let down your hair!”

And so the hair fell down again, though there was a pause, as if the person inside found something wrong with the way his voice wrapped around those words. 

The prince struggled for a moment in order to find a way to safely climb the tower with the help of the hair he held in his hands. But once he was a few feet up it became less difficult. When he reached the top of the tower he met eyes with the person inside, a boy around his own age.

They stared at each other of a few seconds, neither ready or willing to back down. And as much as Yao would have wished to let go of his hair and let the intruder fall this was both impossible and painful when they were so close together.

And so he let the strange man enter.

At first they did not get along, Yao backing into a corner before realizing this was unsafe and skittering to the bed and peeking out for behind the hay mattress. The prince only stood there in awe of the other boy’s beauty. His eyes tracked up and down what little was showing over the bed, and then followed the trail of hair that was still hanging out of the window from across the room.

It took the pair quite some time before they were comfortable around each other, Yao especially. Though when the prince was not hesitant to introduce himself by his real name as well as his title some of the fear melted.

For a few months they talked, mostly siting on the balcony of the window, for it was quite the hassle to try to climb out again after entering the building. They talked about life, songs, the world outside of the tower, and the cruel confinement that Yao found himself in. Romulus, this was the prince’s name, even found that the instrument he had heard so many times was called an Erhu.

He complemented his companion on his skill, to which the other only blushed and explained that he had a lot of time to practice.

When almost two years had passed, their friendship having since become something more, the sorceress finally found evidence that there had been another person there. She had suspected for a few months, Yao’s distant expression giving away that he was interested in something else. When prompted he would not answer, and this led her to believe that he was defying her rules.

This suspicion had went on for a while before the sorceress finaly found a garment that she had not brought to Yao. She triumphantly brandished the hat in front of him, waiting for an explanation though the outcome would remain the same no matter his response. Internally she was very angry. Anyone who came to the tower, let alone talked to him, was a direct violation of her wishes.

Hoping that less pain would come from it, Yao gave in and told the truth, telling her that he had been talking to the prince of the kingdom for two years.

Flying into a fury and letting herself show the anger she felt, the sorceress screamed at him, choosing words she knew would sting. When the screaming was finished, though Yao did not look as fearful as she had hoped, she reached forward and wrapped her hand into his hair.

She pulled him closer, though even with the exclamation of pain that he initially gave the defiant expression did not leave his face. “You godless child,” she seethed, “I was certain I had taken you from the interfering world!” When he did not respond she let out a cry of pure fury, unable to express the betrayal any other way.

She stood, yanking Yao’s hair up with her, earning another pained yelp before reaching behind herself with her other hand and grabbing hold of the scissors that sat so near to her. At first the teen tried to protest, trying to pull himself away before realizing that it was futile.

And so, snip snap, the hair fell to the brick floor of the room. Lock by lock, the long brown strands were chopped off just at the base of his shoulder blades. And finaly she dropped her hand, letting go of the now much lighter material and throwing the shocked boy backwards. He only had time to take a deep breath before she rushed towards him, reaching an arm out to cup his chin.

”You will pay for this,” she hissed, disregarding her own evil in the sentence. And suddenly he was far away, landing hard and painfully in a forest far away. When, at once, he tried to look up, it became clear that there was no way he would find his way home on his own. And then he wept, knowing that he would suffer greatly in the coming time.

That same day Romulus made his way to the tower as usual, expecting only his beloved boyfriend to be there.

He called for the hair to be let down, and though he found it strange that Yao did not poke his head out and make sure it was him like he usually did not much was thought about it. The hair was let down as normal and he climbed up, finding the same amount of resistance as usual.

But at the top of the tower, instead of the man he loved so much, stood the sorceress, the strands of hair held tightly in her hand. Yao was nowhere to be seen. The shock sunk in quickly, though it was followed even faster by fear. He was scared of the sorceress but he was more scared of what she must have done to Yao.

She cried out scornfully, condemning him for his actions. “Yao is gone, you filthy, lying boy! You have lost him, you will never see each other again!”

And as she so surged towards him, resentment in her beady red eyes, he tripped backwards, terrified and with the need to escape. But his foot caught on the edge of the windowsill and he felt himself falling. Their eyes met, and the sorceress’ scowl twisted into a grin. As he tried to catch himself, struggling to become balanced once more, she stepped closer. And finaly, when he was almost back on his feet, she gave him one push.

That was it, the prince fell, a terrified scream leaving his lips.

When he crashed to the ground he did not die, and the sorceress did not come down to kill him. Instead he fell into the thorns that grew below the tower and they blinded him. He and Yao had wished to get married, but they could not, having no place for a ceremony. This was all he could think about now that he could not see the world around him.

He was certain that he would never see his beloved again and it broke him.

So he wandered for almost a year, blind and unsure of where he was. This painful, lonely existence went on until, one day, he wandered into a certain clearing. At first he did not know what about the place had drawn him.

That was until he heard a voice, seemingly talking to itself. It was muffled, perhaps behind too many leaves, but he was certain that he had heard it before. But then, he suddenly recognized it, and it seemed that the person behind the voice had noticed him as well.

A high pitched gasp was all he heard of a moment, but it was quickly followed by the scrambling sound of bare feet against rock, and then leaves being crushed. The sounds were getting closer quickly, and he took a step back, unsure of how to react. But then Yao threw himself into Romulus’ arms, frantic sobs shaking him.

Two of his joyful tears met Romulus’ eyes and slowly, gradually, he could see once more.

He looked around the clearing, his eyes falling on a face peaking out of a cave nearby. There was a small boy, probably around the age of eight or nine, staring at him. Next, Rome looked down at Yao. The other man’s face was hidden in his chest but he could see the rest of him clearly.

His hair was now a very choppy shoulder blade length dark brown. It still had it’s charming black and near-golden streaks, though it looked much dirtier. His once clean skin has scrapes and bruises, dirt and dust covering his arms. His clothing was the same that Romulus had last seen him in, however, it was torn and dirtied.

Next Romulus looked down at himself. His clothing was torn and bloodied, his skin was as well.

But that did not matter.

Now that they were once again together he had a reason to live, even if that meant bringing the strange boy home with them. And so they found a way back to kingdom, even though it took weeks. Along the way Romulus learned that the boy had been living out in the woods and Yao had found him. His mother had so recently passed, and it seemed like she had fled the kingdom because of a crime she had committed, or perhaps a crime someone else had committed against her.

Whatever the case when the three reached the castle once more they were greeted with great celebration, though not for Yao or the boy at first. They were brought to the king and queen with joy and they lived together happily for a very long time.

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, it’s not exact in the storyline. But I tried to make it make a bit of sense.
> 
> Comments are appreciated!


End file.
